These 4 Mariners have made massive jumps in ESPN Prospect Rankings

Harry Ford - #54 up from #56

Was this a massive jump? No, but I love Harry Ford's game, and he was one of the barely missed top 50 guys. There's something about a catcher out of high school getting ranked highly, and then performing as good as they thought he would. It's impressive enough in his own right, and has definitely been worth the pick that the Mariners made when they took him.

2023 is Ford's age-20 season, and he's spent the year in Everett up to this point. While he hasn't showed the power that one might hope for, there are other facets of his game that are more impressive than that. Ford is striking out just 17.7% of the time, while maintaining an insane walk rate of 20.9%. He is literally walking once per game (39 in 39 games at the time of writing this).

They've been splitting his time between catcher and DH, making sure to keep his bat in the lineup and keep his legs fresh. It's shown on the basepaths, as Ford has continued to steal bases, going 7-10 so far on the season. He has shown a bit of power so far, with just 6 doubles but 5 HR. The power will come, and it's more impressive to see how good his eye has been up to this point. With a .268/.433/.430, we should be incredibly happy with how he's done.

Meanwhile, he is showing plus-ability to play catcher, posting sub 2 second pop times, which gets him in on the better side of the major league average time of 2 seconds. He's nowhere near JP Realmuto, but an athlete behind the plate will continue to grow and improve instead of stagnating early. Harry Ford is climbing the ranks, and will likely be in Kiley's top 50 (if not higher) next season.